Saturday, November 23, 2013

These are Bridget's two female pups sired by Ch. Zashi. These pups are NOT FOR SALE. I'm keeping them for myself. Last time I got a litter of 3 males from this cross and they were all beautiful so I am really excited about these girls.

This one is FOR SALE, 4 month old Zuki is sired by Zorro. Cute as a bugs ear isn't she? I think she will stay pretty small too, so really extra cute and cuddly. She has a lot of substance and big bones though so won't be scrawny. I can't keep them all so I am letting her go to a pet home. She will be spayed, have all her shots including rabies and have her microchip. She is learning her house manners, is crate and leash trained. This professional foundation means she is ready to go in any direction you want to take her whether it's agility, rally or just a family companion. She is fun loving and adorable. $1750

This is Zuki's mama Koji. Now you can see where Zuki get's her good looks huh? Koji is 2.5 years and is fully health certified. It wasn't an easy decisions but I have decided to offer Koji FOR SALE to a pet home because I believe she will be much happier being cherished as the ONLY dog and her happiness is very important to me. Koji has done a lot of traveling and is super in the car, she's house broken and loves to carry a stuffed toy and prance around the house. She is a fantastic companion, who likes children and loves cats, especially black ones like Ming! Koji knows basic obedience and some agility obstacles and it wouldn't take much to do get her rally ready. Whatever you want to do Koji would be more than happy to try it! Current in vaccines & worming, microchipped, she will be spayed before rehoming. $1000.00

Thursday, November 7, 2013

I was playing around with some photos and came up with this. I made a watercolor background of a photo of a pile of UKC ribbons Koji brought back from a show in Madras one year. Tarianne took this great shot of Bridget last spring when she came out like a trooper to stand in last minute for Victor the second day of shows. She showed well enough to get group 3's in both shows, once placing over the #1 Buhund that had taken Best in Show the day before.....tee hee.

Bridget just needs her majors (just huh!) to finish her AKC championship and next spring, if I can, I'm going to take her to Canada with my other Shiba females and try to get her champion title there as well. She is a beautiful dog and deserves the titles. NOT that I'm biased or anything.

I am beyond happy. I must have been really good lately because I prayed for two girls and I got them. And look at those heads! That first girl is spectacular, she looks like a tiny bull mastiff! HA! They just happen to be in birth order in this picture so they'll know who's the oldest when they start fighting about it. This is a repeat breeding and the first time we got all boys BUT they were gorgeous boys and my first white puppy too. I think it was a super nice litter so I wanted to repeat it for Bridget's final litter. I still can't believe I got my two girls. The male has been reserved for many months now by a family who specifically wanted a puppy from Bridget. I can't wait to watch them grow.

Friday, September 6, 2013

I had been wanting to go to Canada to show dogs on Victoria Island for about 10 years now and I finally checked it off my bucket list. I drove to Port Angeles and listened to World War Z audio book. Man, that was depressing. There was no traffic on the road and I made great time. I highly recommend this plan and will do the same next time. I left home at 11pm, arrived at Port Angeles at 4am and slept in line for the ferry until 6:30. It was my first time taking a ferry with my car and I was a little apprehensive but it was a piece of cake. It was overcast on the way there but BEAUTIFUL and clear for the trip home which was great and I enjoyed the views but decided to catch some Z's in the car with the dogs because it was very hot and I wanted the doors open for them.

Once I arrived in Victoria I drove 3 hours up to Courtenay to spend the night at my friend Katja's house. The next morning we were off to our first show.

We started out showing our own dogs but Katja and I discovered that Taka showed better for Katja and Katja's pup Sayuki showed better for me so we just switched for the remainder of the circuit.

My girls Fuyu and Taka & Katja's girl Sayuki

I had only brought Taka for socialization and didn't think she would really do anything as far as winning but her coat was in beautiful condition and I think it impressed a few of the judges considering both Fuyu and Sayuki were both out of coat and Fuyu looked especially naked with lighter colored guard hairs sticking out making her look like a plucked chicken!

There were judges that could see past the hair and Fuyu got several Winners Bitch (WB) placements and some very nice comments from judges like "this is a beautiful bitch!" At least she isn't high in the rear anymore like she was at the last specialty but alas, it IS a dog show and beautiful hair is icing on the cake and to my surprise...................Taka was kicking Fuyu's butt! HA! Go figure.

Goodness gracious, will someone please remind me next time I say I'm planning a litter that I get this darned tired when I have to take care of puppies! They are so much fun and soooooo much work. Even though Shibas are what I would considered easy babies to take care of.
﻿﻿

﻿﻿

Stages are only a day or two. I'm weaning them now and it's really hard on them so they BITCH pretty much non stop unless they are sleeping. If they aren't complaining they are beating each other up which means a lot of scrambling, growling and screaming as loud as possible. Next week is what Marcel has dubbed Shark Week. Week 6 is where the fight.

Most the time I can ignore the puppies practicing their Shiba scream but every once in a while, I want to go all feral on their ass. It's at that time that I understand why some mothers kill their young. Yet there mama lays, so calmly and lovingly, while they pull her tail and bite her feet.

This is really our first day of serious rain and I'm dreading what's to come. Usually the fall rain starts around the middle of September and does this piddling/misting rain until sometime in late October when it starts storming rain which continues until December sometime when the winter sun emerges with false warmth. When it rains next we may have a white Christmas and I remember once we even had a white Thanksgiving here in Washington.

What does that have to do with my farm animals you ask? It's a mucky icky mess outside and I'm always doing something outside getting soaked. Towels and wet cloths are hanging all over the house. We even take our cat Ming outside to his cat kennel to use his litter box so even the cat gets wet! He rides on my shoulder keeping his head pressed as closely to mine as he can get it so he's under the brim of my hat. He's a smart kitty that one is.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Last Sunday August 25th we had another Shiba Open House at Circle M Farm & Kennel, SW Washington. Instead of having prospective owners over one at a time we have group visits. This way we can still do our farm & kennel chores and work on whatever project we have going on weekends without having to break for guests. With several Shiba inquiries per day we could never have time to work!

We had 8 prospective families out to meet our Shiba girls and see their current puppies we have on the ground. Overall it went very well and was one of the easiest orientations I have given. The tent went up and snacks and beverages were provided. All folks had to bring was a chair. Of all things that could happen it rained so we ended up squished into the isle way of our 2 stall barn. Though things were a bit cosy it worked for me. I had dogs on grooming tables for people to pet and my dog room and kennel were open for visitors to look at.

Unfortunately because of the rain we didn't get to work young dogs through the agility equipment I had put out and that would have been great fun. Wouldn't you know it the minute everyone left the sun broke through. I worked my youngest prospect Fuyu over the teeter totter and she did excellent but I was tired by then and went in to rest.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Wow, what a weekend we had! We went two specialty shows on Friday followed by 2 all-breed shows on Saturday and Sunday. We got dumped (didn't win diddly) on the first show Friday but in the second show we came back with a vengeance! Fuyu, my Bridget x Kupono puppy whom I co-own with Jr. handler Heidi won a VERY competitive 6-9 puppy class and Best Puppy, Best Female and beat the Best Dog for the further honor of Best of Winners for 5 points. In the same show her mother Bridget won a strong class of Open Females and took Reserve best female to her daughter. CRAZY MON! I still can't believe it all happened. Kuro also took a reserve in one of the shows and Victor our Rottweiler did OK. We hired a professional to handle him which didn't work out too well because he just kept looking for us so I took him in the ring the next day and he was well behaved for me I am very happy with just that. Victor is a BIG dog and can be hard to work with. Wow. It was all a blur of happiness and excitement. We had many ring side supporters in love with Fuyu so that was very nice too. On Saturday the Shibas didn't do much but on the last show on Sunday Fuyu won her class and went on to win Winner's Bitch for a 3 point major. I'm still in shock.....

About Me

I live in the Pacific NW on a sheep farm with my childhood sweetheart. I raise, train and show my 8 dogs and have two horses. My animals are my only children. I spend my days picking up their poop. Occasionally my creativity erupts and I'll do some artwork with my "children" as my favorite subjects.